ABSTRACT
Costa Rica prides itself on being the Little Switzerland of the Western Hemisphere. Costa Rica is exceptional among Caribbean states in terms of its admirable levels of political, economic, and social development. Most remarkable, however, is that while surrounded by instability and authoritarian rulers in other Central American states for the past 200 years, Costa Rica managed to build a stable representational democracy. In light of its propitious development and strong democracy, it should be expected that Costa Rica experiences relatively low levels of political corruption. This is true to a certain extent. On the one hand, compared to other Caribbean developing states, Costa Rica possesses one of the lowest corruption ratings in the entire region. On the other hand, Costa Rica's corruption ratings are much worse than those of Switzerland or other strong democracies.
